Penalty parade costs Flames sorely-needed win in Winnipeg

We know it’s unbelievable when discussing a team that’s lost eight games in a row, but the Calgary Flames aren’t playing horrible hockey right now.

On Friday night they headed to Winnipeg to face the Jets in a rematch of a very tight-checking game on Monday in Calgary that the Jets narrowly won 2-1. And on Friday, the Flames did quite a few good things.

Sam Honzek‘s battling for a contested puck led to a Flames goal and Honzek’s first NHL point (an assist) on a goal by Mikael Backlund. Zayne Parekh, promoted to the top power play unit, made some nice passes and picked up his first point of the season (also an assist) on a goal by Nazem Kadri.

“He did a good job up there tonight,” said head coach Ryan Huska, via Flames TV. “The puck movement up top was noticeably different from him tonight, so it was a lot quicker moving side-to-side, and I think that’s what opened up that chance for Naz on his goal.”

But the name of the game for the Flames right now, unfortunately, has been finding ways to lose. And following a similar script to their home loss on Monday, the Flames simply gave the Jets’ high-octane power play too many opportunities with the man advantage.

The Jets scored two goals on eight power play chances and beat the Flames by a 5-3 score to stretch Calgary’s cold streak to eight games, and give them a 1-7-1 start that’s tied for the worst in franchise history through nine games.

“Five on five I think we’re doing some good things right now,” said Huska. “But you’re not going to win hockey games when you take eight minor penalties. That’s just the way it goes.”

“That’s the difference,” said alternate captain Blake Coleman. “I don’t know what it was, nine minor penalties? Somewhere in there. You’re not going to win games, you’re not going to get out of a rut like we’re in. You’re just beating yourself at that point. Five-on-five I thought we were the better team. We just couldn’t keep the play at five-on-five, and they’ve got a good power play and we’ve got to clean up our kill. There you go.”

For posterity, here are the Flames’ eight penalties that resulted in Winnipeg power plays:

• At 9:33 of the first period, a Matt Coronato interference minor.
• At 14:47 of the first period, an Adam Klapka holding minor.
• At 6:24 of the second period, a delay-of-game minor off an unsuccessful coach’s challenge.
• At 8:30 of the second period, a Kevin Bahl holding minor – Winnipeg scored on this penalty.
• At 18:01 of the second period, a Rasmus Andersson holding minor – Winnipeg scored on this penalty.
• At 0:55 of the third period, a Morgan Frost tripping minor – this wiped out the final 1:05 of a Calgary power play.
• At 5:59 of the third period, a Jonathan Huberdeau high-sticking minor.
• At 11:30 of the third period, a Coronato high-sticking minor – this wiped out the final 1:47 of a Calgary power play.

We would submit that it was as much the timing of the penalties as it was the quantity of them that hurt the Flames. Bahl’s minor penalty, just six seconds after a successful kill of the delay-of-game minor, gave a warmed-up Jets power play a second crack at it. Andersson’s minor, coming near the end of a period, gave the Jets an insurance marker heading into the third period.

And twice, the Flames took penalties that halted their own power plays before they could really get going, preventing the Flames from potentially taking advantage of those opportunities.

“It’s just careless. It’s careless,” assessed Huska.

The Flames are doing some good things in their games, particularly at five-on-five – Friday night was the third consecutive outing where the Flames had the edge over their opponents (according to Natural Stat Trick) at 5v5 shots, scoring chances and high-danger scoring chances. But the Flames are doing enough ill-advised things in their games to neutralize what they’re doing well.

And it’s causing the losses to continue to pile up.

The Flames return to action on Sunday when they host the New York Rangers.